The long time moribund EU new car market is slowly getting its act together, albeit on a very low level. In October, passenger vehicle registrations in the EU27 increased 6.5 percent from October 2013 to 1,072,837 units, Europe’s manufacturer association ACEA says. All volume markets excluding France (-3.8 percent) were up. For the 10 months through October, registrations are up 6.1 percent.

Among the OEMs, Renault (+10.5 percent) made a strong comeback on strength of its Dacia brand (+25.1 percent) Cross-town PSA was up only 1.1 percent. BMW was up 9.4 percent, while Daimler added only 2.2 points in October.